Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from August, 2006

Pluto Demoted...Planet no more

The planet Pluto has been demoted to "small solar system bodies" like other comets by the International Astronomical Union as it doesn't satisfy the defination of a planet. This announcement came after a week when two more planets were discovered taking the total number of planets to 12. The tenth was discovered more than three years ago. However yesterday's declaration left the solar system with only eight planets. For now, membership will be restricted to the eight “classical” planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto has been disqualified under the new rules for a planet which says, “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto's orbit overlaps the orbit of Neptune.

Bangladesh not guilty:centre

NEW DELHI, Aug 17 – The escalating tension between Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) notwithstanding, the Centre today dismissed reports of Bangladesh grabbing 500 acres of Indian territory. In a Rajya Sabha reply, Minister of State for External Affairs, E.Ahmed said that reports about Bangladeshi nationals grabbing 2.02 sq km of Indian Territory have been found to be incorrect. Read Assam tribune for more details www.assamtribune.com

ULFA leader may be released

'The Hindu' on friday reported that the Indian government may release the top ULFA leaders who are in Indian Prisons. The government is trying to set up talks with the outfit next month. Meanwhile the ULFA has staged an increase in its activities in Assam in a ploy to pressurize the government to submit to their demands.